Rapport från Olivias barnhem

En grupp amerikaner har under en vecka i augusti besökt Olivias barnhem i Fengdu för att arbeta som volontärer. Det var en "mission trip", vilket i det här fallet betyder att de skänkte massor av saker till barnhemmet, städade, målade väggar och lekte med bebisarna. Nedand följer den rapport som en av mammorna sänt till vår diskussionsgrupp på internet, Fengdu Families. Just nu vill jag adoptera 47 barn till. När ni läst texten förstår ni varför.
Det finns också en blog där ni kan se lite bilder från barnhemmet, fast de flesta föreställer amerikanerna själva. Bloggen skapades för volontärernas familjer, så jag får väl förlåta att de inte visar mer interiörer. Jag har översatt några ord som kanske är obekanta längst ner på sidan.

As for some specifics about the orphanage itself - this is what I can tell you. This particular orphanage is fairly small. It was constructed in the 2003-2004 timeframe when the city was relocated across the river from the ancient Fengdu. There is very little left of ancient Fengdu, just the temple high on the mountain and some buildings that look absolutely decrepit. Ancient Fengdu is truly a Ghost town now. It was almost a 4 hour bus drive from Chongqing on some of the worst imaginable roads. I can understand why they do not bring adopting families there. It is a rough ride and there are very few appropriate places to stop. It would be a very hard trip with babies. After a very bumpy ride, you are all of a sudden on pavement and in the middle of Fengdu. Our team had begun to despair of what kind of hotel we would be staying in when all of a sudden, we saw newer buildings. There is still a lot of construction happening there. It was horribly hot - in the middle of one of the worst droughts that area had ever seen - and almost no air conditioning in the orphanage when we got there. It reached an actual temp of 107 while we were there with a real feel temp of 120 in the sun. To say I have never sweated quite like that is an understatement.

The SWI director is Mr. Tao, however he is over both the children and the elderly - which are housed in the same building, just different floors and areas. Ms. Cao is over strictly the children. They had 47 babies all under the age of 15 months at the time of our visit. 4 nannies are on at a time and they do 24 hour shifts, one day on, one day off. I can say with all certainty that the nannies truly care about the children there. They are constantly busy feeding, changing, bathing, not to mention fixing huge amounts of bottles and carrying in the diapers they have laundered outside the orphanage. But there simply are not enough hands to go around. All of the babies are bottle propped if they cannot hold their own bottles. Two to three bowls of congee are fixed and then simply shared between all the larger babies. Those that can swallow the fasted and protest the most get the most food.

The orphanage is divided into a large, front room that houses the bigger, blue cribs and we called it the "walker room" since it houses the older babies and is full of babies in walkers. They also have small bamboo chairs there that less mobile babies are in. They have a TV/VCR player in there and they do play Chinese and English movies. It was hard because this is the first room that we saw and it was a little overwhelming. So many babies sitting in the bamboo chairs, others in walkers and others still in their cribs. Most were a little scared of us at first. The mattresses on the cribs were dirty and they do not use any linens.

The second three rooms on the left were baby rooms with cribs lining the walls. Babies there were placed 2 or 3 per crib. It took us a little while to realize that the nannies had a system of keeping track of what babies were in what room - roughly divided out by age. You could tell by the color shirt they wore. All the babies in one room wore the same shirt or same color shirt. There was a bathing room on the right as you moved down the hall, then a room that was like a rough office. They had an empty room that they wanted to turn into a clinic down the road. Then there was a room that had foam mats on the floor that was supposedly used as a playroom. This is where we brought most of the babies to roll around and play. The back room was used for storage and off of it was a bathroom and small kitchen. A balcony went around all the rooms on the left. There were two special needs babies there. One was a little boy - cleft lip and palate - both unrepaired. He was tiny and had obviously not been thriving. However he blossomed under attention. The second baby was a little girl with hydrocephalus. She looked to be only 2-3 months old but I bet she was quite a bit older than that. What was hard to witness - even though we knew it to be true before we went, was seeing the special needs kids ignored. They were never picked up that we saw and we were even discouraged from picking them up at first. Very hard to take. I think they were a little shocked at our interest in these children. On our team was a family that had adopted a CL/CP boy and when they showed before photos of him to the nannies, and then they could witness how great he looked after, they were amazed. They had no plans to get surgeries for either of these kids - I think access to healthcare there is a big issue.

Our team loved, rocked, played, cleaned, scrubbed, painted, and shopped while we were there. We were able to purchase: A 6 month supply of formula for the orphanage; New mattress covers for all the cribs (we couldn't find new mattresses anywhere); Paint for two playrooms; Developmental toys for two playrooms; New floormats for both playrooms; Multiple pairs of shoes for the walker room babies4 air conditioners; 2 nebulizers for asthma; new door locks, window locks and heat lamps for the bathing area for winter time; gifts for all the nannies that work there.

Decrepit = fallfärdig.
Congee = kinesisk buljongsoppa.
Walker = gåstol.
Cleft lip and palate = läpp- gomspalt, harmynthet.
Thriving = växa och frodas, bli frisk och stark.
Crib: spjälsäng (am) (cot på engelska)
hydrocephalus = vattenskalle
107 Fahrenheit = 42 Celcius

http://www.fengdumission2006.blogspot.com/